Underway

How to spell underway

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce underway

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does underway mean?

1. adjectiveHaving started and now actively happening or in motion.

Underway in a sentence

• The renovation of the kitchen is finally underway after months of planning.

• Negotiations between the two firms got underway early on Monday.

Where does underway come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word began life at sea, and its spelling reflects a borrowing rather than a native compound. It comes from the Dutch onderweg, which literally means 'on the way' or 'under way', built from onder ('under') and weg ('way' or 'road'). Eighteenth-century English sailors adopted the Dutch nautical term to describe a ship that had begun to move through the water, and the older English phrasing 'under weigh', as if connected to weighing the anchor, was a mistaken folk respelling that lingered for a while before fading. From the literal sense of a vessel in motion, the meaning broadened to cover any activity that has started and is now in progress. The single closed-up form 'underway' became common in the twentieth century, especially as an adjective or adverb, which is exactly why writers hesitate between 'under way' as two words and 'underway' as one.

How the word is built

• under- (in the course of, beneath)
• way (path, motion, progress)